What we think: America needs leaders

By the time this is being read, Mr. Herman Cain will probably have dropped out of the Republican presidential race – or at least should.

Mr. Cain burst onto the national political scene with his catchy “9-9-9” economic plan and went on to a stunning win in the Florida Republican straw poll.

But it has been downhill since then as the Cain campaign fights off claims of sexual harassment and a more recent assertion from yet another woman that she had a 13-year consensual affair with him that ended some eight months ago.

Even before those allegations, which Mr. Cain continues to deny vehemently, it was becoming apparent that his presidential bid was going nowhere. He showed none of the depth of knowledge required of any potential American president in today’s very complex world and even boasted that he is “a leader, not a reader.”

But Mr. Cain is merely symptomatic of today’s political malaise. Other GOP candidates consistently show they have little capability to lead 21st century America but doggedly press their candidacy, while their obviously more capable rivals are sidelined in the almost daily charade that passes for Republican presidential debate.